^LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. i 



[FORCE COLLECTION.] | 

# $ 

| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ! 



OBSERVATIONS 



ON 



TOE YELLOW FEVEB, 

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF A NEW MODE OF TREATMENT AND 
CURE FOR THE SAME, AS WELL AS FOR PUTRID AND 
MALIGNANT DISEASES IN GENERAL, APPLICABLE ALSO 
TO CASES OF POISONING BY MINERAL OR VEGETABLE 
substances: A PARALLEL BETWEEN THE YELLOW FE- 
VER AND THE PLAGUE; THEIR CAUSES; THE RATIONAL 
TREATMENT OF THE LATTER, WITH THE MEANS OF RE- 
TARDING OR PREVENTING THE RETURN OF BOTH. 

REMARKS ON CALORIC AND COLD, AS CONNECTED WI TH ELECTRICITY 
AND MAGNETISM, AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE SYSTEM OF THE 
UNIVERSE. 







Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. 
BY ANTHONY PLANTOU, 

SURGEON AND DENTIST. 



SECOND EDITION. 
ooo 

T 

PHILADELPHIA: 
1822. 









*p 



EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit; 

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the second day of November, in the Forty-seventh year of 
the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1822, Anthony Planton, of the said Dis- 
trict, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the 
words following, to wit: 

" Observations on the Tellow Fever, with an account of a new mode of treatment and cure for the 
same, as -well as for Putrid and Malignant Diseases in general, applicable also to cases of Poison- 
inq by Mineral or Vegetable substances: a parallel between the Tellow Fever and the Plague; their 
causes; the rational treatment of the latter, with the means of retarding or preventing the reiurnof 
both." 

" Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas." 

By Anthony Plantou, Surgeon and Dentist. 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An act for the encour- 
agement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and 
proprietors ol such copies during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act, entitled, 
'• An act supplementary to an act, entitled, ' An act for the encouragement of learning, by se- 
curing the copies of maps charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during 
the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engrav- 
ing, and etching historical and other prints." 

DAVID CALDWELL, 

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 



To His Most Excellent Majesty, George IV, King of 
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 
&c. &c. &c. 

SIRE,— 

I hear every day the distressing observation, that 
Truth, how beautiful soever she may be, is frightful, if 
naked.. Poor as lam, I may have given her birth. May 
it please your Majesty to offer her your protection, to 
adopt her as yours, and shelter her beneath the Royal 
mantle. 

I remain, 

Your Majesty's 

Most humble and obedient servant, 

Anthony Plantou, 

Surgeon and Dentist. 



TO THE READER. 

Previously to publishing the following observations, 
I was desirous that an opportunity should be afforded 
of making a trial in our sister city, of the mode of treat- 
ment, which I had found effectual for the disease which 
has this year afflicted her. I accordingly addressed 
them to the Board of Health there, in the form in which 
they are now presented to the public. 

I am indebted for the translation of my remarks to 
the assistance of Mr. Edward W. Wells, Student of 
medicine. 



OBSERVATIONS, $c. 



To the Honourable, the President, and members of the 
Board of Health of the city of New- York. 

Philadelphia, Oct. 20th, 1822. 

GENTLEMEN, 

The dreadful disease which still prevails in New- 
York, induces me to present to your notice some suc- 
cessful experiments, made by me a few years ago, in 
relation to its cure. 1 shall proceed to relate the fact, 
and to show the reasoning which led me to the disco- 
very. 

During my residence in the colonies of Guadaloupe* 
Martinique, and others, where new-comers from Eu- 
rope and other temperate climates are constantly ex- 
posed to the attacks of yellow fever, I too often heard 
it avowed by physicians of the first standing, that this 
fatal disorder triumphed over all the means which could 



8 

be brought against it, solely on account of its rapid pro- 
gress to putrefaction. 

Reflecting, therefore, that this disease attacked only 
new-comers, and comparing the constitution of these 
with that of the Creoles, 1 was led to liken the latter to 
indigenous plants. Their temperament or constitution 
is in a certain degree modified by nature to fit them for 
the climate which they inhabit; and the constitution of 
Europeans and others is not less modified, but is fitted 
for their native country, and when they come within 
the torrid zone, a change so sudden cannot but pro- 
duce disastrous consequences. The excessive heat 
operates on the animal economy of those persons as it 
does on all bodies solid and fluid; on fluids its action is 
greater and more remarkable; in the human body their 
volume is so considerably augmented, that their respec- 
tive vessels cannot contain them, whence results a ge- 
neral overflowing and derangement in the system, which 
gives rise to the yellow fever; for of all the fluids which 
enter into our composition, the bile the soonest under- 
goes the process of fermentation, and in this state it pro- 
ceeds from its reservoir, already possessed of corrosive 
properties.* By its accumulation and retention in the 
stomach and intestines, it becomes the cause of vomit- 
ing and black fetid dejections; it soon corrupts and de- 
teriorates the chyle, which being carried into the cir- 

* See additional remarks. 



9 

culation, decomposes the blood and produces the yellow, 
livid, black, or purplish hue, as well as the hemorrhages 
of corrupted blood, from the nose, eyes, and sometimes 
from the ears, which latter take place equally, if the 
patient has previously been copiously bled or not. 

The most eminent physicians in the colonies with 
whom I have been acquainted, agree in dividing the 
yellow fever into three stages. The first stage is dis- 
tinguished by a sense of oppression and by a general 
prostration, before the patient is obliged to take to his 
bed. The second stage is generally inflammatory, but 
so rapid in its progress, that blood-letting can rarely be 
employed with advantage. The third and last stage is 
that of putrefaction. The disease usually terminates 
fatally in three days, but sometimes it is prolonged to 
the seventh or ninth day, and when such is the case, 
there is hope of saving the patient. 

The curative means generally employed in the colo- 
nies, are blood-letting, bathing, emetics, cathartics, clys- 
ters, blistering, the bark in large doses. Notwithstanding 
these remedies appear calculated to answer the indica- 
tions, they seldom prove successful, and their failure, 
it strikes me, arises from their being insufficient to ar- 
rest the progress of putrefaction. 

Reasoning from analogy, I asked myself if there was 
not in use to this day, a substance which externally ap- 

2 



10 

plied, was found capable, in all cases, of arresting the 
progress of corruption. The almost miraculous effects 
of charcoal presented themselves to my view. You are 
well aware of the great efficacy of this remedy in many 
cases, when applied to foul ulcers, and of its power of 
arresting gangrene : you know that meat is preserved 
by it from putrefaction, and that even when tainted or 
in a putrescent state, the application of the same re- 
stores it, in a great measure, to its original sweetness; 
in fine, that water which is fetid and in a state of de- 
composition, becomes sweet and wholesome by being 
passed through a charcoal filter. From these well- 
known facts, 1 concluded that charcoal internally em- 
ployed as an antiseptic, anti-putrid, or anti -gangrenous 
remedy, ought to prove specific in yellow fever and pu- 
trid diseases in general. 

Strongly impressed with the truth of this opinion, I 
resolved to make a trial of the remedy as soon as an 
opportunity should offer. The first person on whom I 
employed it, was a joung man in Guadaloupe, of the 
name of Bonnefond, who had been in the place about 
three weeks. I had seen him on his arrival, and the full 
health he then enjoyed, made me fearful that his would 
be the usual fate of the youth who sought the destructive 
climate to which he had just come. I was intimate with 
him, and told him that if he fell sick, I knew of a reme- 
dy which would cure him. We had formerly met with 



11 

each other at Bordeaux, and he knew that I was then 
a student in the hospital de St. Andre, and attended 
the lectures there, as well as in Paris. This circum- 
stance gave him confidence in my abilities, though, at 
the time, I did not practice medicine, preferring the 
profession of a dentist, as more lucrative, I being the 
only one in the colonies. 

As I had foreseen, Mr. Bonnefond fell sick. He 
called upon me and informed me, that for two days past 
he had experienced lassitude and uneasiness, and had 
spent a very bad night. In short, he had a high fever, 
with great pain in the head and loins; his tongue was 
of a vivid red, and he was troubled with retchings. 
These symptoms were unequivocal. I had by me some 
lime-water, which I had prepared in case any necessity 
of the kind should occur, and I gave him a pint of 
the same, in which [ mixed half an ounce of powdered 
charcoal,* aiding the mixture by a sufficient quantity 
of lemon syrup. He rejected a part of this by vomiting, 
and in a quarter of an hour I repeated the dose. The 
retchings ceased, but were succeeded by severe colic 
pains, whence I conceived it necessary to clear the 
bowels as soon as possible, of the offending matters 
contained in them. Accordingly, 1 administered two 
ounces of castor oil, and, as soon as it began to ope- 

* Charcoal, administered in such a dose, is of itself a powerful cathartic. 



12 

rate, I continued the use of the charcoal, an ounce of 
which I mixed in a quart of lime-water sweetened 
with lemon syrup, ordering him to drink a gill of it 
every time he had a stool.* The evacuations were very 
abundant, yellow, green, viscid, and even black, but 
they had nothing of the fetid odour peculiar to the dis- 
ease. Towards evening, the mordicant heat of the fe- 
ver had subsided; the patient passed a pretty good night, 
enjoyed some sleep, and perspired a good deal. His 
thirst was no longer distressing, yet I thought it expe- 
dient to give him frequently the lime-water with char- 
coal, as before. The next day I administered an ounce 
and an half of castor oil: the stools were more copious 
than before, but equally free from any fetid smell. The 
third day I omitted the cathartic, but continued the use 
of the lime-water with charcoal, in the same dose. The 
fourth day, as the tongue was still furred, though nei- 
ther dry nor dark, I gave an ounce and a half of 
castor oil; the evacuations were copious and unattend- 
ed with pain. The alarming symptoms disappeared, 
and on the fifth day the patient was entirely out of dan- 
ger. His convalescence was very speedy. 

After this successful trial, which fully satisfied my 
expectations, and proved the truth of my theory, i had 
only two more opportunities of employing the same 

* Common lemonade was often given as a diet drink. 



13 

treatment, and in both cases the result was equally hap- 
py. The English having taken possession of Guade- 
loupe, I was among the number of those who left 
the place. 

If, gentlemen, I had made numerous and recent tri- 
als, I should offer you my observations with more con- 
fidence. One of the motives which has caused me to 
delay presenting the preceding facts to your notice, 
was the desire of making new experiments; but I finally 
concluded, that as I was not a practitioner of medi- 
cine, to say I had a remedy for yellow fever, would 
sound too much like quackery. 

Excuse me, therefore, gentlemen, that I have not 
sooner made this communication, and believe, that in 
pointing out a new mode of treatment for that dread- 
ful disease, and which I believe to be the only one ca- 
pable of effecting a cure, I am influenced by motives 
of humanity, and not by a vain self-love. 

I have the honour to be, 

Gentlemen, 

Your most obedient 

Humble servant, 

Anthony Plantou, 

Surgeon and Dentist. 



14 



Additional remarks and observations on the cure of pu- 
trid and malignant diseases in general; applicable 
also to cases of poisoning by mineral or vegetable sub- 
stances: a parallel between the yellow fever and the 
plague; their causes; the rational treatment of the lat- 
ter, with the means of retarding or preventing the re- 
turn of both. Concluding remarks on caloric and 
cold, and their connexion with electricity and mag- 
netism. 

To the preceding letter, and such of the following 
observations as particularly related to the yellow fe- 
ver, no answer was received from the board of health 
of New-York. Thinking, notwithstanding, that a sub- 
ject of so much importance to their health and welfare, 
and that of other nations, would not be considered un- 
interesting by the public, I added such remarks as 
suggested themselves on the cure and prevention of the 
plague as well as of the yellow fever, in order to ren- 
der my labours as useful as possible to mankind. 

I have often assisted at the autopsic examination 
of individuals who died of the yellow fever, in the 
hospitals of Guadaloupe and Martinique. In every in- 
stance I have observed excoriations on the oesophagus, 
and gangrenous and sphacelated spots more or less ex- 
tensive, on the stomach and intestines. These I could 



15 

attribute to the corrosive property only which the bile 
had acquired, in conjunction with some vitiation of the 
gastric juice. The above appearance, in my opinion, 
imperiously forbids the use of emetics, especially those 
derived from the mineral kingdom, because their ac- 
tion cannot but increase the erosion already existing. 

I also consider castor oil the best cathartic we can 
employ in this disease, from its power of involving and 
blunting the corrosive matters, and sheathing the stom- 
ach and bowels from their acrimony. My mode of 
proceeding resembles the treatment employed in cases 
of poisoning, and I believe it to be the more reasona- 
ble, from the fact that the effects produced by mineral 
poisons, and by that which I think may be justly term- 
ed animal poison,* are almost the same, with this differ- 

* Animal poison — not virus; which constitutes and proves its non-com- 
municability from person to person, inasmuch as it is essential that two 
conditions should be fulfilled before the disease can exist. 1st, There 
must be a sufficient degree of excitability in the individual or individuals: 
2nd, a sufficient source of deleterious effluvia. The infected person is 
never a centre of contagion, as in the small pox, syphilis, hydrophobia^ &c. 
A virus differs from a poison in its action on the animal economy; 1st, by 
its very nature; 2ndly, by its affinity with the fluid it attacks; that is to say, 
a virus is of a viscid quality, and, for this reason, attacks the lymph, which 
once deteriorated becomes contagious. Some virus, it is true, act by ex- 
halation as well as by contact; exceptio probat regulam. On the other 
hand, poisons act by a caustic, corrosive, or narcotic principle, and their 
action is principally directed to the digestive apparatus, which is proved 
from the effects which have been produced by the mere external applica- 



16 

ence, that the former excite vomiting only, while the 
latter, being spread over the whole alimentary canal, 
consequently produces both purging and vomiting. In 
both cases the post mortem examination shows that 
the stomach and intestines have undergone the action of 
a violent corrosive principle. 

The excessive heat* is, as I have already observed, 
the primary cause of yellow fever in this country as 
well as in the West Indies. T consider it the primary 
cause for this reason; it promotes the decomposition of 
animal and vegetable substances, and the exhalation 
of deleterious miasmata thence arising, while at the 
same time it renders the animal economy more sus- 
ceptible of their destructive influence. Does not ex- 
perience prove that in this country, and in Spain, 
where the yellow fever has so often rhade dreadful 
ravages, it has always made its appearance during the 
hottest months, and disappeared as soon as the cold 
became somewhat severe. If such were not the case, 

tion of preparations of arsenic or verdigris; whereas virus have no influence 
on the organs of digestion, a proof of which is, that the virus of the viper 
has often been swallowed with impunity by bold experimenters. The 
Creole has not the degree of excitability necessary to contract the yellow 
fever; yet the bite of a serpent causes death in him as in a European, and 
he is equally subject with the latter, to small pox, syphilis, &c. 

* That is to say in this country from 85 to 90 degrees and upwards of 
Fahrenheit. 



17 

Havanna, New Orleans, and Charleston would, like the 
West Indies, be the constant seat of this terrific disorder. 

The causes of disease are much less numerous 
than is generally supposed; and, I repeat it, I consider 
the excessive heat as the parent of all putrid and 
malignant disorders. I therefore conclude them to be 
different in degree of malignancy only, according to 
the quantity of miasmata floating in the atmosphere, 
and the predisposition which may be present at the 
time in the animal economy. I therefore trace the 
genealogy of these diseases as follows: 1st. simply pu- 
trid ; 2nd, putrid and malignant, which are the ty- 
phus, cholera morbus, some insidious and epidemic 
fevers, violent dysenteries, scurvy of the first and second 
degrees of violence ; and 3rd, highly malignant, which 
are the yellow fever in all its grades, and the plague, 
which, like the former and other high fevers, varies in 
degree of malignancy, according to the proportion of 
matter existing in the individual, favorable to the ac- 
tion of the deleterious and fatal agent. 

The last mentioned disease, which has for ages 
made almost annual ravages on the borders of the Nile, 
where it has its origin, is caused also by excessive heat, 
and the deleterious exhalations arising from the filth 
and ooze which that famous river leaves exposed on 
its subsiding, as well as from the swamps and ponds 



18 

which abound in that country. The disease gradually 
spreads, carrying death and desolation in its course, 
during the months of March, April May, and June, and 
then, sometimes by degrees, sometimes suddenly, dis- 
appears. Its cessation is ascribed to the northwest wind 
which regularly begins to blow at that period, and to 
the copious dews, which are so impregnated with nitre 
as to cover the hillocks frequently like a light fall of 
snow, insomuch that the salt is collected for the pur- 
pose of manufacturing gunpowder. These two causes 
combined, suffice to purify the air and restore health to 
the country. 

At Constantinople it is constantly observed that the 
accession of cold weather puts a stop to the plague. 

The climate of Egypt establishes the same difference, 
which, as I have to remark hereafter, exists between 
the natives of the United States and Spain, and the 
Creoles of the West Indies; that is to say, the Egyp- 
tians and Ottomans after having the plague once, are 
not less subject to its attacks, for the reasons I have 
to state with respect to yellow fever. 

The cause of the two diseases being the same, the 
effects ought to be similar. Accordingly, the principal 
symptoms of both are, general prostration, great pain 
in the head and loins, vertigo, extreme thirst, redness 
of the eyes and face, very high and hard pulse, a pain 
in the stomach and bowels, giving the sensation of burn- 
ing coals, black vomit, and fetid dejections, yellow, vio- 



19 

let, or black colour of the skin, in fine, marks of gan- 
grene on the stomach and intestines after death. The 
sole difference before the fatal event, is the determina- 
tion to, and inflammation of the inguinal or axillary 
glands, which I take to be a sign of greater malignan- 
cy, whence it follows that death sooner takes place.* 

When the degree of violence in the disease is such 
as to allow the buboes to suppurate, the patient fre- 
quently recovers, yet even though the disease is not at 
its highest degree of malignancy, the buboes generally 
do not proceed to suppuration ; they excite excru- 
ciating pain, suddenly change from a red colour to a liv- 
id, and finally, to a black hue, whence the denomination 
of carbuncle. In these cases the disease terminates in 
death in the space of one, two, or three days; but when 
this disease is in the highest degree of malignancy, it 
attacks the principle of life so suddenly and violently, 
that nature has not time to offer any opposition, and 
sinks under it before the infecting poison can be brought 
to the surface; there are no buboes; there is no series 
of symptoms; the victim dies as if struck by lightning. 

From the reasoning I have just made, and the par- 
allel drawn above, I infer that the mode of treatment 
which I have recommended for one disease, is equally 
applicable to theother.f 

* A collateral proof of the similitude of the two diseases, is to be found 
in the occurrence of carbuncles in certain severe cases of yellow fever, 
t It is in this case, that camphoretted oil frictions on the inguinal and 






20 

The plague, like the yellow fever, has its general and 
particular degrees of malignancy. There are seasons 
when it renders cities and country, as it were, a vast 
grave, while the following year, and sometimes several 
years afterwards, the number of individuals who die 
of it bears no proportion to those who perished of it 
in preceding periods. In these mild years it is observed 
that the prevailing diseases are simply putrid, but in 
some individuals, take on the character of malignancy; 
and in these cases the symptoms are exactly concomi- 
tant to those of the yellow fever; the inflammation of the 
inguinal or axillary glands not taking place. This ex- 
actly accords with my foregoing observations, where I 
considered this symptom as indicative merely of a high- 
er degree of malignancy. 

If it should be asked why in the same country, in 
the same situations, and under circumstances apparent- 
ly the same, the plague should make so many victims 
one year, and so few another, I would answer, that 
though the circumstances appear to be the same they 
are nevertheless very different. For I may almost say 
that in a disastrous year the monster devours itself, but 
arises again like the Phoenix from its ashes; or that it 
is like those volcanos whose eruptions never cease un- 
til their entrails are consumed. But lest I should be 

axillary glands, as well as on the abdominal regions, ought to be insisted 
upon, with clysters of oil and linseed decoction in a small quantity, so as to 
be retained in the bowels. 



81 

ambiguous to some, I will express my idea in less figu- 
rative language. I would say that these disastrous 
years derive their source from the mild ones, during 
which the poison has remained dormant; that this, by its 
accumulation, if I may be allowed the expression, fills 
the measure at last till it overflows; and that this over- 
flowing takes place at more or less distant periods, ac- 
cording to the degree of rapidity with which the col- 
lection of miasmata takes place. At length when the 
heat becomes sufficiently great, and every thing- is ready 
to bring these effluvia into action, the atmosphere is 
suddenly charged with them, and carries death almost 
to every individual who breathes it. The degree of 
malignancy, therefore, is in proportion to the degree of 
heat, and it is this difference of temperature which con- 
stitutes the difference between the cause of plague and 
that of yellow fever. These remarks on the plague, 
lead me to extend the corollary to the yellow fever, and 
I shall call to the aid of my argument the epidemics of 
1793 and 1798 in Philadelphia, that of 1819 in Char- 
leston, that of the same and of this present year in 
New Orleans, and lastly that of 1821 in Spain, as ter- 
rible witnesses. 

In the Medical Journal of Dr. Wm. Wittman, 
member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, 
and surgeon of the English army in Egypt in 1799, 
1800, and 1801, I remark, that the treatment for the 
plague is the same as has been employed here to this 



day for yellow fever, viz. bleeding, emetics, calomel, 
blisters on the breast, stomach, and even on the head, and 
the bark in large doses. He says that the only remedy 
which seemed to have a good effect, was oil employ- 
ed externally by friction. The reason of this is very 
plain: it is, that of all the remedies prescribed, the last 
with blisters, is alone applicable to this disease. But 
it is not to be employed externally merely, and if it 
has done good when used in this way, it can only be 
attributed to the absorption which took place, and thus 
diminished the violence of the disorder.* 

It is known almost to every one, that the Creoles of 
the Windward and Leeward Islands, as they are called, 
are not subject to the yellow fever. The reason is evi- 
dent; it is that custom is a second nature; they are born 
in an air impregnated with miasmata, and breathe it 
from the first moment of their existence, whence their 
constitution is very different from that of the natives of 
temperate climates. They are in general enervated, 
phlegmatic, and of a lax fibre, while strangers who go 
to that country are quite the reverse, and this it is which 

* In my opinion, daily frictions with oil would prove an effectual pro- 
phylactic of the plague, both by preventing- the dryness of the skin, which 
the excessive heat would otherwise occasion, and hindering the absorp- 
tion of deleterious miasmata through the pores. I have observed in the 
West Indies, that negroes who worked naked under a burning sun, were 
naturally covered with an oily perspiration, which prevented that affec- 
tion known by the name of a stroke of the sun, which the whites are so 
subject to; for the same reason, no doubt, the former are not affected with 
yellow fever in that climate. 



23 

draws the line of demarkation between them. After a 
residence of some years, however, this line of demar- 
kation ceases to exist, for ia that time, the latter ac- 
quire the privilege enjoyed by the Creoles, either by 
having the yellow fever, which is called taking the 
sickness of the country, or by undergoing less danger- 
ous disorders. But the instances of this kind are, alas! 
few. It is calculated that generally in the space of 
five years, ninety out of one hundred perish of the yel- 
low fever, violent dysentery, and other diseases, and 
that ten years afterwards, five of the ten only remain. 
These, it is true, may, like some of the Creoles, live 
to a great age. 

The difference in the climate of the West Indies, 
and that of temperate countries, causes the difference 
in the susceptibility of receiving the yellow fever more 
than once, in one place or in the other. If an indi- 
vidual in the West Indies has the disease once, and re- 
covers, he has nothing to fear from it afterwards, pro- 
vided he continues to reside there. On the contrary, 
in this country and in Spain, instances are not unfre- 
quent of persons recovering from yellow fever one year 
and dying of it the next, or some years after. The 
cause is, that the cold succeeding the heat restores to 
the fibre and to the whole frame that tone, which once 
lost in the West Indies is never renovated, unless by 
removal to a temperate climate. 



24 

Since it is proved to demonstration, that in this 
country, the excessive heat is the exciting cause of 
yellow fever, and that it is only requisite that there 
should be a sufficient quantity of deleterious matters 
for this heat to act upon, to produce the disease, the 
best method to retard or prevent its return, particu- 
larly in large cities, must be to endeavour by every 
means to dry up marshy spots, to fill up stagnant pools, 
to cleanse every place engendering or containing dele- 
terious matters, and especially not to allow any body 
to be interred at any season of the year, without hav- 
ing charcoal and quicklime placed in, above, and below 
the coffin. The same precautions ought every three 
months to be taken with privies. The moment of 
danger ought not to be waited for, nor ought these pre- 
cautionary measures to be left to the care of tenants or 
proprietors; these most important and necessary duties 
ought to be attended to by the municipal authorities of 
every city; they should be scrupulously fulfilled, for the 
health, the fortunes, and the lives of the citizens are 
at stake. A good government, a good administration, 
should watch over these as well as over the morals of 
the people; it is for thern to attend to these things, and 
not to leave them to the indifference of the inhabitants, 
who, like shipwrecked seamen, seldom fulfil, when the 
danger is over, the vows which they make while in 
distress. It is thus that in a short time quarantine 



25 

regulations may every where be safely subrogated* 
The internal enemy is most to be suspected; it must be 
subdued, it must be destroyed, by depriving it of ali- 
ments. It is thus, that here, in Europe, and every where 

* When I say the quarantine laws may in a short time be safely subro- 
gated, I mean, after the sources of deleterious miasmata shall be com- 
pletely removed in the interior, under which circumstances, a vessel 
which has in itself the elements of the yellow fever, will not be capable of 
infecting- any port or city; while, if the precautions I have advised should 
not have been properly executed, the entrance of this same vessel would 
be like the application of a torch to a train of gun-powder. An infected 
vessel should be abandoned by the crew as speedily as possible, if they 
would diminish the number of victims; for it is useless, in such a case, to 
brave certain destruction; and this year, if the Macedonian and the Hor- 
net could have been thus deserted, the lives of many useful individuals 
would certainly have been saved. By acting thus, the safety of all will be 
obtained, and neither lives nor time will be lost. For a new crew cannot be 
engaged for such vessels, till the season allows to be done without danger, 
all that is necessary to purify them from deleterious matters, which will 
not fail to make new ravages the next season, if they are allowed to re- 
main undisturbed. 

Infection does not and cannot take place, except within the miasmatic 
circle. The centre of this circle is the most dangerous; and the least dan- 
gerous place is at the extremity of its radii. The individual or individuals 
enclosed within this circle, are thus exposed to infection, but cease to be 
so, when beyond it. It is for this reason that patients removed to the coun- 
try, or to a part of the city to which the miasmata do not extend, recover 
more easily, and do not endanger the health of any other person. The fol- 
lowing is a comparison, of which I was myself the subject. I was one night 
exposed to the action of carbonic acid gas, proceeding from the embers of 
a stove, the damper of which was closed. I fell twice or three times in the 

4 



26 

else, bounds may be laid to the tyrannic empire of 
death. 

The preceding observations lead me to observe, that 
in Egypt, the plague owes its malignancy less to the 
excessive heat of the climate, than to the great unclean- 
liness of the people, and to the numerous infectious 
spots which abound there, and exist even in the heart 
of their cities. Among others we may adduce the in- 
stance of Rosetta, where the plague always commen- 
ces, and makes the greatest ravages. The narrowness 
and filthiness of its streets, its topographical position, 
the ponds of water with which it is surrounded, the 
putrefaction of all kinds of carcasses, which from cul- 
pable negligence are allowed to lie above ground; in 
fine, corpse heaped upon corpse, in the burying grounds 
which, as here, are in the middle of the city, sufficient- 
ly explain why it has the frightful privilege of giving 
birth to the plague. 

Jf, from the borders of the Nile, I turn my eyes to 

act of going- from my bed to the window, which I opened. It is unnecessary 
to add, that I used the means directed in such cases. My wife was much 
more affected than myself; but a servant who slept in a closet by the side of 
my room, only separated by a partition with a door, experienced no incon- 
venience. Another comparison is that of a well or a privy, containing this 
same gas, into which a person descending is suffocated, while those above 
are unaffected. It is thus by analogy, that I explain why, in the Grotto 
del Cane, a dog falls into convulsions, while his master standing up, and 
having his head above the gas, respires pure air, and is consequently safe. 



21 

the banks of the Mississippi, and let them rest on Neva 
Orleans, I see a gay population, occupied only with 
pleasures and amusements when the season of death is 
past. The thirst for riches makes them forget the risk 
they have run in the pursuit; and, intoxicated as it were, 
they haste to grasp the enjoyments of a life which, per- 
haps, is not long to last. The germs of corruption, 
however, are every where unfolding; the wharves are 
in the worst state; the streets are extremely dirty;* 
stagnant waters exist in and out of the city, and quan- 
tities of filth, which are thrown out from the vessels, 
and otherwise accumulated, are left exposed by the 
subsidence of the river, which usually falls from 20 to 
24 feet, in the worst seasons. It is true, that from New 
Orleans being situated below the level of the Missis- 
sippi, its atmosphere cannot so easily be purified as that 
of other places; nevertheless, it may be completely rais- 
ed and paved. Though no stones are to be found there, 
the immense commerce which has made the city so 
flourishing, will render a supply of them easy. It is 
only necessary to pass a law obliging every vessel ac- 
cording to its burthen, to bring every voyage a certain 
quantity of stones, with which several streets may an- 
nually be paved; and I would advise them to be laid 
upon a bed of charcoal. For many years, the neces- 

* There are only one or two belonging- to Mr. Morgan, Mercht. that 
are paved. 



28 

sity has been perceived of washing the gutters, whieh 
are constructed only of* planks, often badly joined, and 
allow the water to drain through and stagnate be- 
neath, so that corrupting, it exhales a fetid odour even 
in winter. It was for this purpose that seven or eight 
years ago a steam engine was erecting to furnish a 
supply of water morning and evening. However, the 
death of Mr. Latrobe, jr. in 1817, and Mr. Latrobe, 
sen.* in 1820 having necessarily suspended the work, 
this steam engine has never been finished, as if there 
were not to be found in the United States men suffi- 
ciently enterprising and capable to perfect it. 

It still remains to point out two abundant sources of 
deleterious miasmata; these are privies and burying 
grounds. With regard to the first, they are in New Orleans, 
more than any where else, the focus of pestilence, be- 
cause the surface of the ground does not permit them to 
be d ug more than six inches deep without their being filled 
with water the moment thev are made. There are two 
methods of obviating the bad effects of these; the first is 
suggested to me by experience, for I have observed in 
Pointe a Pitre, and in Basse Terre, that there are no 
privies, all the soil being daily carried to the sea by 
slaves; and why in New Orleans may it not be thrown 
into the river? Or rather, which I think would be pre- 
ferable, there should be constructed a mile or two from 

* An architect of great merit. 



29 

the city, reservoirs, raised five or six feet above the 
level of the ground, in order that the moisture may 
drain off. Instead of digging privies, casks ought to be 
kept in every house, to be carried away and emptied 
into the reservoirs every month, as will be particularly 
explained hereafter. The foecal matters contained in 
the reservoirs, would form, when dry, one of the best 
manures. There are persons in Paris who have acquir- 
ed large fortunes by dealing in what is called la pou- 
drette, which is nothing more than the foecal matters 
dried and burned. As respects burying grounds, the 
means I have before mentioned ought to be employed, 
that reason may triumph over prejudice, and civilization 
regain the rights which barbarism has usurped. The 
Romans burned their dead, and preserved their respect- 
ed ashes in costly urns, with which they ornamented 
their houses, and this custom had at once a moral and 
salubrious intent. 

I cannot leave this subject without taking notice of 
the island of Cuba. This charming country, which 
travellers justly compare to a terrestrial paradise, seems 
profusely blessed with all the gifts of Nature. There 
reigns an uninterrupted spring; there are flowers and 
fruits of every season; the air is embalmed by a thou- 
sand perfumes; infancy, maturity, and old age, all en- 
joy perfect health. Gayety, pleasure, and hospitality 



so 

forjm the charm of their whole existence; in fine, the 
inhabitants of the country enjoy all the happiness of 
life. But in Havanna, the air is so impregnated with 
putrid and infectious miasmata, that great numbers, at- 
tracted from all nations by commerce and the hope of 
enriching themselves, fall victims to the yellow fever. 
The causes I have mentioned, when speaking of New 
Orleans are almost the same in Havanna; with this 
difference, that in the latter city, the air may much 
more easily be purified, if the municipal authorities 
would employ the means which humanity loudly calls 
for. 

It is here to be remarked, that in Paris, in 1554, 
the suppression of the Cemetery of the Innocents, was 
ineffectually demanded, and it was not till the year 
1785, two hundred and thirty-one years after, that a 
resolution was taken to remove from the city that focus 
of putrefaction, which caused every year epidemics 
more or less afflicting, according to the proportion of 
putrescent materials, and the degree of heat in concert 
therewith. Previously to taking this step, the people 
had often offered up prayers to heaven, to relieve them 
from the scourge of pestilence; but they did not reflect 
that God has not said, that he will, at our desire, change 
his laws, which are immutable; that, for our asking, 
causes shall cease to produce their effects; were it 



31 

otherwise, he Would not be himself the Cause of cau- 
ses. On the contrary, he has said, " Help thyself, and 
I will help thee." This declaration of the Deity was 
then attended to by the good people of Paris, who, on 
one of those days, when nature forces the destructive 
effluvia to retire deep into the bowels of the earth, set 
about the work, and transported the bones of their fa- 
thers to the quarries* from which they had taken stone 
to build the city. All the bodies which were still capa- 
ble of undergoing putrefaction, were covered with a 
sufficient quantity of quick lime and consumed. Since 
that period, this part of the city, which is one of the 
most crowded, though not the most clean, has never- 
theless been as healthy as any other; and through a 
prodigy performed by reason, the throne of disease has 
been metamorphosed into a cornucopige.f 

* To which they gave the name of the Catacombs. 

f The burying 1 ground was converted into a market, called the market 
of the Innocents. In the centre of the square rises a magnificent fountain, 
with a jet of water on four sides, falling into a basin. It is ornamented on 
each side with basso-relievos, of the celebrated and unfortunate John Gou- 
jon, who, while employed in adorniDg the Louvre with his immortal sculp- 
tures, received a blow from an atrocious and envious artist, unperceived 
by any one, and perished by falling stunned from the scaffolding, which 
was more than 60 feet high. 

Since the year 1785, no bodies are buried in the churches, and the bu- 
rying" grounds are removed to the distance of two miles from the city. They 
are on elevated spots; one is called the church-yard of Pere la Chaise, and 
the other of Mont Martre. 



32 

It is to be hoped that an example so salutary, will not 
be held up in vain to a peoplelike thatof the United States ; 
a people which, in a shorter time than the French took 
to deliberate upon the subject of the public health, has 
founded a number of cities, of which the population 
equals or excels that of the second order in Europe, 
that have been thousands of years in existence; a peo- 
ple, whose exalted courage has raised it to the highest 
rank among free nations, and which, not long since, so 
nobly fought to preserve its just independence; a peo- 
ple, in fine, among which the spirit of philanthropy has 
no bounds but those of justice; it is to be hoped, I say, 
that now the veil is removed, and it may be seen by 
the broad light of reason, that the germ of the destroy- 
er of its health, its commerce, and its future fortunes, 
is in its very bosom, the same zeal will be shown in 
destroying it, as was manifested in breaking the shac- 
kles of despotism. Let it be well considered, that the 
evil increases in proportion to the indifference with 
which it is regarded; let the loss already sustained, the 
present loss, arid the loss to be expected, be properly 
reflected upon, and there will be no fear of prejudice, 
expense, or difficulty, in the undertaking. 

It is to be hoped that our people will listen, at the 
same time^ to the voice of reason and necessity, much 



33 

more imperious here than in France,* where the heat 
being less ; produces less exhalation of miasmata dan- 
gerous to life. No one can be ignorant, that burying 
grounds and privies,f in the heart of a city, contribute 
more than any thing else to give to the water qualities 
pernicious to health, and that if this state of the water 
have less activity in its action than impure air has, yet 
it aids in augmenting the effects of the latter. New- 

* Io Paris, the greatest degree of heat is from 60° to 65 Fahrenheit, while 
in New Orleans, Charleston and Savannah, it rises to 90° 95° and 100°; 
in Philadelphia, to 90° and 95°, and it has even been known to rise to 
102°. This difference is very considerable, nor is it less remarkable from 
its effects. For, were the temperature of Paris suddenly to become as high 
as that of Philadelphia, the former, by reason of its crowded population, 
pent up in six story houses, the narrowness of its streets, and the unclean- 
liness of certain spots, would, instead of the yellow fever, experience a 
plague of the worst kind. 

f Sinks for privies in a country like this, where the heat in summer is so 
great, are a focus of infection, and ought to be entirely suppressed by mu- 
nicipal law, which may easily be done as follows. Every house ought to 
be provided with two casks, each capable of containing all the soil accu- 
mulated in a month, at the expiration of which time, the full cask should 
be raised and conveyed to be emptied into reservoirs, two or three miles 
from the city, such as I have proposed, when speaking of New Orleans. 
These casks may be furnished with covers, to close them hermetically, so 
that no unpleasant smell will be perceived, in removing them for the pur- 
pose of being emptied. The adoption of water-closets, as used in London, 
would be preferable even to the above plan, in a city plentifully supplied 
with water, as is Philadelphia, though the necessary expense of construct- 
ing them, would be an objection to their general use. 

5 



34 

York, Charleston, Savannah, Norfolk, and every city 
which has not the benefit of soft water, are particu- 
larly exposed to these two causes united. 

To return to the treatment of yellow fewer; in saying 
that the disease is divided into three stages, I confined 
myself to the observations of the learned physicians 
with whom I was acquainted in Guadaloupe and Mar- 
tinique, of whom I need only mention Dr. Am\c of 
Basse Terre, Dr. Barbes of Pointe a Pitre, and Dr. 
Gaubert of St. Pierre de la Martinique, These gen- 
tlemen, as I have before said, consider one period of 
the disease inflammatory, but so rapid in its pro- 
gress that blood-letting can rarely be employed with 
advantage. I should be happy to found the whole of 
my belief on the knowledge of the above distinguished 
physicians, yet though unknown in medicine, and al- 
most ignorant of the science, it is not impossible that 
my own opinion may be correct, when I make bold to 
declare it my belief that there is no truly inflammatory 
stage in yellow fever; that the redness of the face and 
eyes, the accelerated pulse, the vivid colour of the 
tongue, and the burning heat of the skin, are but the 
symptoms of commencing corrosion, shortly to be fol- 
lowed by putrefaction and death, if means are not 
immediately applied to the seat of the disorder, capa- 
ble of arresting the first and preventing the latter. I 



35 

infer, consequently, that blood-letting should be utterly 
proscribed in the treatment of yellow fever. 

Not to appear wanting in deference to the opinion of 
practitioners who hold a contrary doctrine, I would beg 
leave to inquire, if they have ever employed blood-let- 
ting in any disease which they considered of a putrid 
character. Have they ever employed it in slight or vio- 
lent cases of cholera morbus? — No — on the contrary, 
they have endeavoured to allay the irritation of the sto- 
mach and bowels by a plentiful use of diluents; they 
have employed the most powerful anodynes in large 
doses; they have, in short, properly fulfilled the indica- 
tions.* Now, in this country, no two diseases are more 
similar than cholera morbus and yellow fever; they are 
similar from the cause, which is the excessive heat, 
and from the effect, which is a violent irritation of the 
stomach and bowels, arising from acrid and fermented 
bile, and terminating in corrosion of those parts. The 
treatment of cholera morbus is well adapted; but, in se- 
vere cases, the means employed, it appears to me, are 
not sufficiently energetic. I leave to future experience 
to decide whether the treatment I have recommended 

* This mode of treatment proves how much the science of medicine has 
improved of late years. For at a period not very remote, recourse was 
had in extreme cases, to the exhibition of leaden bullets, and quicksilver 
by pounds, to render straight that canal which nature had unfortunately 
formed tortuous. 



36 

for the yellow fever would not be equally applicable to 
cholera. For in this disease it will not do to attempt 
to reach our object by circuitous routes. Death is at 
hand, and must be vigorously resisted, or nature will 
sink beneath its stroke. If the cholera morbus is never 
epidemic in this country, it is often so in India and in 
China, where it makes still greater ravages than the 
yellow fever does here. 

I feel convinced that this treatment is adapted also 
to the cure of that dreadful disease, the scurvy, which 
so often proves the scourge of camps and vessels, and 
which made such horrible destruction among the troops 
stationed at Terre aux Boeufs, in 1809, much aggra- 
vated, no doubt, by the injudicious use of mercury * 

Though 1 have been fortunate enough to cure the 
yellow fever in three instances, I attribute my success 
entirely to the use of charcoal and lime, which being 
most powerful antiseptic and anti-gangrenous remedies, 
decomposed and neutralized the corrosive principles of 

* An anecdote is related of one of the soldiers labouring under this dis- 
ease, whom the hospital surgeon, upon visiting the sick in the morning, 
observed stretched out in the corner of the room, with a quantity of sorrel 
and green buds which he had procured, and of which he was eating; he 
turned to the attending surgeon and said, Give this man the mercury: try 
the experiment; for 1 am persuaded it is the most effectual remedy that can 
be exhibited in this disease. The patient overheard the charge, and re- 
plied, None of your experiments with mercury on me; I am doing well 
enough; and if you will let me alone I shall get well. The surgeon, in good 
humour, granted his request, and the man got well. 

Med. Rep. JV. S. Vol III. p. 40. 



37 

the bile and of the gastric juice, removing at the same 
time the effects of deleterious miasmata. The castor 
oil assisted in the cure by involving and evacuating the 
same corrosive principles. The quantity of this must 
be proportioned to the urgency of the case. If two oun- 
ces at first should be found insufficient, the dose should 
be increased till abundant evacuations are procured. 
In addition to this treatment, advantage may be derived 
from the use of camphorated oil, applied milkwarm, 
by friction, to the abdomen and axillse. It was by no 
means without design that I employed lime-water* as a 
vehicle for the administration of the charcoal. I chose 
it because it is of itself anti-emetic, tonic and antiseptic, 
and because it augments, by its combination with the 
charcoal, the oxygen which the latter contains in abun- 
dance. 

To cure the yellow fever is doubtless very desirable, 
but to prevent it, still more so, and if charcoal pos- 
sess the power of arresting putrefaction, when it has 
commenced, it is reasonable to suppose it will prevent 
it. I would therefore advise its use as a prophylactic, 
in the dose of a drachm, taken daily in the morning 
fasting, mixed in syrup or molasses and water. This pre- 
caution may the more easily be observed, as this pow- 
erful remedy costs almost nothing, is everywhere to be 

* If the dose of lime-water, which I have already prescribed, should not 
be found sufficient to arrest the vomiting", the quantity may be augmented 
without the least danger. 



38 

had, does not impair digestion, as I have myself expe- 
rienced, and has no unpleasant taste. 

In a word, in summing up the uses to which this me- 
dicinal combination may be applied, I think it adapted 
to all malignant diseases, where the vital principle is 
imminently endangered, and, where the question is 
promptly to neutralize the cause and prevent its effects. 
I consider it useful also in cases of poisoning by metal- 
lic substances, as well as in that from mushrooms, to 
which case I believe it to be particularly applicable.* 

I am of opinion, that in all cases where the vital 
energy requires raising, blisters may be employed with 
great advantage; but they should be applied only to the 
thighs and legs. One means, which is at hand in this 
country, and which they have not in the West Indies, is 
ice; it may, with the same intention that blisters are 
used, be employed to cool the drinks, and as a powerful- 
ly tonic application to the abdominal region. Clysters, 
also, composed of equal parts of olive oil and flaxseed 
tea, in the quantity only of a quarter of a pint, that they 
may be retained in the bowels, will prove very useful.f 

* Since my discovery of the virtues of charcoal, I have recommended it 
as a powerful antiseptic* to several distinguished practitioners of Paris, and 
among others to Dr. Coutens. He used it in 1811 in cases of obstinate 
dysentery, and by it operated cures in a short time; the fetor of the stools 
being- corrected in a few days after its exhibition. I also recommended to 
him lime-water, as an antemetic and powerful vermifuge. 

f These, as well as the frictions with camphoretted oil, are particularly 
applicable to plague. 



39 

The sole nourishment I employed was rice gruel. 

I greatly approve the use of lime to disinfect places 
which exhale deleterious effluvia; but I think that pound- 
ed charcoal would have a much more powerful effect, 
and that they ought always to be employed together, 
when they are used in aqueous or humid situations. 

Charcoal has the valuable advantage of preserving 
its antiseptic virtues even after it has produced its ef- 
fects, whereas the power of lime is momentary. The 
former may, in this respect, be compared to musk, 
which will for years exhale its odorous principles, with- 
out sensibly losing either weight or smell. 

After having had the boldness, in the course of this 
little work, to express some truths drawn from my own 
observation, I feel happy to shield myself beneath the 
aggis of the god of Medicine, and hear himself pro- 
nounce the oracle, 

iC Contrariia contraria eurantur." 

It is upon this celebrated maxim, that I shall found 
my attempt to analyse the treatment actually employed 
at the present time in yellow fever. The remedies in 
use are, 

1. Bleeding; 2. Emetics; 

3. Purging by calomel and jalap; 4. Mercury; 

5. The bark; and, 6. Opium. 

1. — Of bleeding. I have already made the remark, 



40 

that in yellow fever there is no truly inflammatory 
stage, and that the redness of the eyes, face, and 
tongue, the accelerated pulse, and the heat of the skin, 
are but indices of the action of a corrosive poison, 
which ought to be arrested as quickly as possible, by 
such means as are capable of neutralizing and involv- 
ing the same. If it be said, that nevertheless persons 
have recovered of the yellow fever, who have been 
bled seventeen, or even twenty-one times,* I would an- 
swer, that this disease has different degrees of malig- 
nancy, and that the two cases cited must have been so 
mild that the patients would have recovered if they had 
not been bled. 

2. — Of emetics. I compare good health to a balance 
m exact equilibrium. When disease is thrown into one 
of the scales, the equilibrium is destroyed; and when 
the physician is called in to restore it, he must effect this 
restoration by placing the remedy in the opposite scale. 
Now, I would beg leave to inquire of medical gentle- 
men, and of every man of common sense, whether, in 
cases of poisoning by arsenic, corrosive sublimate, ace- 
tate of copper, acetate of lead, &c. they would give the 
patient a powerful emetic, as is generally recommended 
by w T riters; I would ask whether it would not be heaping 
the medicine on the offending matter to augment its 

* See Medical Repository, vol. V, N. S. p. 237. 



41 

power. I think I am aware of the reason which leads 
those who recommend this treatment, to believe it a 
correct one. They conceived it to be necessary to eject 
the poison in every case, by the shortest way, and to 
expel it violently; whereas, it is reasonable first to neu- 
tralize it, then to involve it in oily medicines, and gra- 
dually to eject it by the longer route. 

It is here to be proved, that although the patient vo- 
mits, or has an inclination so to do, this tendency must 
not be aided or augmented, and that the rule of assist- 
ing the efforts of nature, is here truly fallacious; the 
vomiting ought to be checked or suppressed, if possible, 
as it is frequently found to be useful to do in cases of 
poisoning by mineral or vegetable substances. 

3 .— Of purging by calomel and jalap. Pu rging ought 
certainly to be employed; but for this purpose we 
should use oily cathartics only, and not drastics, when 
the irritation of the stomach and bowels nearly ap- 
proaches to corrosion. 

4. — Of mercury. To use this remedy with the hope 
of bringing on a crisis, that is to say, of opening a way 
by which nature may rid herself of a poison that so im- 
minently endangers the vital principle, between which 
and that poison, the struggle should be ended in one, 
two, or three days-, to use it, I say, with this hope, is 
truly to act blindly and without a knowledge of the ene*- 

6 



42 

my to be encountered; for the operation of the medi- 
cine cannot become sufficiently powerful but in a space 
of time, before the conclusion of which the patient has 
ceased to live. 

When this remedy is used to blunt and destroy a 
virus, which gradually proceeds to the very bones, it is 
very well; when employed for an obstruction of the 
liver, of the mesenteric glands, or other parts, 'tis also 
very well; when recently employed for the removal of 
the rabific virus, 'tis still very well; for in these cases, 
the physician has at least the power of managing at 
will, this grand cheval de bataille. 

5. — Of the bark. It was long unknown, but is thought 
to be understood at this day, by what particular prin- 
ciple this remedy acts in intermittent and remittent fe- 
vers. It was formerly supposed to be by the tannin, 
and is now decided to be by that which has been term- 
ed cinchonin, that is to say, by the principle which 
has the property of precipitating a solution of tan, and 
is incapable of disturbing that of gelatine or that of 
sulphate of iron. Whether its operation depend upon 
one or both of these principles, is of little consequence; 
experience has proved it to be unquestionably an excel- 
lent remedy for intermittents. But, in yellow fever, the 
case is very different. It has no intermissions; it is 
symptomatic, as in the case of an extraneous sub- 



43 

stance, which must be extracted before the fever can 
be removed, on the principle sublata causa tollitur ef- 
fectus. 

Cinchona cannot be employed in the yellow fever, 
nor in the case just alluded to, till after the cessation 
of alarming symptoms: it is then indicated as a tonic, 
and as a means of preventing a relapse, 

6. — Of opium. Of all the remedies commonly em- 
ployed in the disease in question, opium is the one, on 
which the practitioner, from an analysis of its proper- 
ties, should place the least reliance. Its highly stimu- 
lant qualities, the difficulty of fixing the dose, the irre- 
gularity of its effects on persons of the same age and 
sex, and even on the same person in the same disease 
at different times, cause me to regard it as not only 
very uncertain, but deceptious and dangerous. To 
employ it in small doses, is to endeavour to extinguish 
a conflagration with a drop of water; to use it in a 
large dose, is to increase the mischief; it is, in fine, to 
seek to destroy one poison by the exhibition of another, 
and is in direct opposition to the law of the father of 
Medicine, contrariis contraria curantur. 

I conclude with Hippocrates, that in this disease, as 
in all others, where the vital principle is endangered 
by the effect of a poison, under whatever form it may 
be, neutralization is the sole indication of reason and 



44 

nature. It is therefore to be hoped, that the proposed 
treatment will not meet the resistance which so long 
retarded the utility of inoculation, vaccination, cincho- 
na, emetics, mercury, and many other discoveries ser- 
viceable to the cause of humanity. 



4.5 



On Caloric and Cold, as connected ivith Electricity 

and Magnetism. 

lc Regarde autour de toi, contemple tout 1'espace, 
Par quel divin accord le monde est gouverne, 
Nul etre n'est oisif, tout occupe sa place, 
Et tout est enchaine," 



Having, in the foregoing pages, justly considered ex- 
cessive heat as the cause of deleterious exhalations, I 
shall here endeavour to define caloric, and to investigate 
its properties. 

Caloric is the cause of expansion of all bodies, solid 
and fluid. By its intense action, solids pass into the 
fluid state, as is seen in the fusion of metals, and fluids 
become gaseous, as is observed in steam-engines. Ex- 
cessive heat causes the separation of organic molecules 
in the three kingdoms of nature, to which, after ana- 
lysing causes and effects, I add a fourth, to which I 
give the name of meteorical. This comprehends water, 
atmospheric air, and ether, in which vast space, the 
powerful empire of caloric is particularly established. 
This great agent gives birth to the electric fluid, and 
by rarifying water, air, and ether, gives life and motion 
to all nature. The sun is its primary source, and vol- 



46 

can os are its vast reservoirs. We may thus, I think, 
explain why mount Hecla, and so many other volea- 
nos, placed by the hand of the Creator in icy regions, 
vomit perpetual flames, while those situated in tempe- 
rate climates, or under the torrid zone, are subject only 
to periodical eruptions. It is thus that I also explain 
why, before the famous eruption of Vesuvius in 1779, 
the sun was for many days deprived of its rays and 
usual heat, which circumstance has been observed to 
take place more or less before every eruption. These 
reservoirs are intended to counterbalance the other 
agent of nature, which tends to the condensation of or- 
ganic molecules, and without which the earth would 
shortly be consumed, and by which, without the first, it 
would soon be reduced to an inert mass, which is prov- 
ed by the congelation of spirits, and the change of 
quicksilver to a solid state, in approaching the poles. — 
The former is to be considered as the primary support 
of life, as is evinced in the process of incubation, and 
the latter as the final cause of death, which is proved 
by its usurping the place of the former, in a body that 
has ceased to live. — The reservoirs of this last are si- 
tuated about the poles, and on the tops of mountains. 
The absence of such reservoirs in this country, is the 
reason why places under the same latitude as others in 
Europe, are subject, notwithstanding, to much greater 



47 

vicissitudes of cold and heat. In fact, instead of moun- 
tains forever covered with snow and ice, we have here 
merelv immense lakes, which receive and transmit sue- 
cessively heat and cold,* with the same facility as these 
are transmitted to them. The presence of the Andes, 
and the elevation of the soil in bouth America, suffici- 
ently explain why the heat is not so excessive under 
the equator, as it is in North America.f 

* I have before stated the maximum of heat in this country, and I may 
now remark the greatest degree of cold to be from zero to several degrees 
below, on Fahrenheit's thermometer. The weather, however, seldom be- 
comes severe before Christmas. It frequently changes so suddenly, that 
I have seen 24 degrees difference of temperature in the short space of 
4 hours. On the first day of this month, December, the weather was 
as warm as in summer, and attended with a severe storm of thunder and 
lightning; three days after, the cold was so severe, that in one night all the 
ponds of water about the city were frozen over. 

f God has made nothing in vain — for dreadful, awful, and destructive 
as their effects may be, voleanos nevertheless cause heat to circulate 
through all the ramifications of matter; it is thus that we imitate Him r 
when we light fires to counterbalance the oiher terrible but necessary 
agent, cold. Man can in fact much more easily resist the influence of the 
former, than of the latter. In this particular we may be compared to 
plants, which grow under a burning sun, but which in cold climates can 
be kept alive only by art. 

To produce great effects great causes are requisite; and as I have just 
remarked that terrible as may be the effects of voleanos, the all- wise 
Creator has designed them for an important use, I may add that their 
counterpoids are not less dreadful; witness the destructive power of ava- 
lanches, and of the islands of ice which are sometimes carried even into 



48 

The above circumstances equally explain why the sky 
is here more serene than in Europe, why the summers 
and winters are so long, that they absorb, as it were, 
spring and autumn. The last season is here so fine, that 
it seems a spring in which nature throws off, instead of 
putting on, a new dress. This remarkable tempera- 
ture has given rise to the name of Indian summer. 

In favour of what I have advanced, without having 
the temerity however, to wish to put myself in compa- 
rison with the immortal Newton, 1 would observe that 
before him, it was unknown why the vast bodies which 
roll above us with so much harmony, without clashing 
or confusion, were so preserved in order. To him 
alone belongs the honour of having been the first to 
declare, that if these bodies performed their revolutions 
without interrupting and destroying each other, they 
obeyed the law of the Creator, who had assigned to 
each a power of repulsion and attraction. 

The existence of the two great agents above men- 
tioned, and their known action in balancing each other 
for the preservation of this sublime creation, aid me in 
penetrating to the cause of repulsion and attraction, 
which are also the effect or result of two other agents. 
I have reference to the electric and magnetic fluids. I 

the neighbourhood of our ports. I may observe, en passant, that if these 
two fluids, heat and cold, are in constant action, their causes and the 
means by which they are renovated, must likewise be so. 



49 

have already observed, that caloric is the parent of 
electricity, and I will prove finally, that in proportion as 
that agent takes possession of a body which conceals 
within itself the magnetic fluid, that fluid leaves the 
same. For instance, a piece of iron rendered magnetic, 
loses almost entirely its power of attraction when rais- 
ed to a white heat, and it does not recover that power 
until cold again returns; whence, it necessarily follows, 
that magnetism and electricity are diametrically op- 
posed, as are heat and cold, and that if caloric is the pa- 
rent of the one, cold must be the parent of the other. 

As I have already proved that the poles and high 
mountains are the reservoirs of that agent to which I 
give the name offrigoric, it follows that the magnetic 
needle obeys its influence by turning towards the for- 
mer, and that its attraction is always augmented, in 
proportion as it is placed in an elevated situation, that 
is to say, in proportion to the degree of cold* To these 

* When any person ascends a mountain to a certain height, is he not 
frequently a tranquil spectator of majestic, imposing-, wonderful, yet 
dreadful scenes produced by electricity below? It is then that he occupies 
the region of the magnetic fluid; and thus I would explain why the air 
which he breathes has a kind of pungency, something piercing and pene- 
trating, like as in winter, being charged with magnetism. In this situa- 
tion, a person may be said to be in a vernal region, with winter above his 
head, and summer at his feet. 

This quality of the air is very hurtful to delicate lungs, and still more so 
to persons labouring under pulmonary complaints. For this reason, the 

7 



50 

two proofs, which would be alone sufficient to confirm 
my doctrine, I will add a third, capable of subduing 
scepticism itself; viz. the attraction of the north pole of 
a magnet, by the south pole of another, and the repul- 
sion of the latter by the south pole of the former, and 
vice versa. 

Truth, like the sun, illuminates the world; and, like 
him, can never be obscured by the sombre shades of 
night* 

winter season is so fatal to such individuals, and the fall still more so, by 
reason that every great and sudden change in the atmosphere, requires a 
proportionate strength in the body to resist the same. 

It will now be easy to explain why the higher a person ascends on a 
mountain or in a balloon, the colder he finds the temperature of the air, 
since it is certain that this region is occupied by the magnetic fluid, be- 
yond which is the void in which the planets perform their revolutions. 

This arrangement unveils more fully the infinite wisdom of the all-boun- 
tiful Creator; for had the burning rays of the sun been transmitted to the 
earth through a hot medium, instead of bringing forth flowers and fruits 
innumerable, and being covered every day with a refreshing dew, it would 
have been a parched and sterile waste. We should neither behold the 
beautiful variety of the seasons, nor those enchanting scenes, which, en- 
rapturing our forefathers, led them to offer up to heaven the early produc- 
tions of the soil, the first fruits of their gardens, and the first born of their 
flocks. Even in this age of corruption, the magnificence and fertility of 
the earth, which confounds the pride of man, causes him at least to raise to 
the Almighty a grateful heart, and, when he beholds the benefits so boun 
teously heaped upon him, leads him 

" To look through Nature up to Nature's God." 

* It is no doubt because we have not sufficiently observed Nature, that 
we say proverbially, as opposite as day and night, instead of saying as op- 



51 

The sun is a body of fire, from which proceeds light 
and caloric. Light is only an attribute of caloric, but 
caloric is the parent of electricity, the effects of which 
are always accompanied and rendered sensible by light. 
By the rule that all extremes meet in a point, I ad- 
vance, that as cold is the opposite extreme to heat, it 
is the parent of a fluid as necessary to the exis- 
tence of nature, as caloric itself, with this difference, 
that the effects of the former are rendered sensible by 
light, while magnetism being entirely void of that qua- 
lity, acts without striking our senses, except by its ef- 
fects. Hence it follows naturally, that caloric may act 
by reflection, and that cold cannot. I am of opinion 
that the great phenomenon of Aurora Borealis, is pro- 
duced by a combination of electricity and magnetism, 
accompanied by the absorption of light. 

Ice may be considered a reflecting mirror, and acts 
in fact as such. The light of day obscures that of the 
stars, and for the same reason the Aurora Borealis can 
only be seen after sunset. It is needless to remark, that 
magnetism is then more abundant than electricity; and, 
as I consider also thunder and lightning the result of a 
combination of electricity and magnetism, the reverse 

posile as heat and cold. The first is a truth relative only to places, but 
the second is a truth not only throughout this world, but throughout the 
universe. 



52 

takes place; that is to say, that under these circum- 
stances electricity is in a greater proportion, and that 
this agent being generally accompanied by light, this 
phenomenon is visible in the day time, as well as dur- 
ing night; in a word, one exhibits itself under the 
equator particularly, and in warm climates, and the 
other towards the poles and cold regions. Although 
these two fluids are every where in constant and per- 
petual action, it is no less evident that the first exer- 
cises its power in the summer especially, and the lat- 
ter in the winter. In the last mentioned season, are 
the astonishing effects of electricity ever observable? is 
it not remarkable, that if a few flashes of lightning are 
sometimes seen in this season, it is only on days unu- 
sually warm for the time of year? The effect of heat 
in producing electricity, is very evident in eruptions 
of volcanos, the immense clouds of vapour proceeding 
from which, exhibit the most vivid flashes of lightning, 
followed by thunder extraordinarily loud, as was par- 
ticularly observable in the eruption of Vesuvius, in 1 779. 
By analogy I would explain why in summer, our 
fields are often laid waste by severe hail-storms; it is 
because at those times there exists a sufficient quantity 
of the magnetic fluid to congeal the vapours floating in 
the atmosphere. In the same way I explain why, in 
the beginning of autumn, and very late in the spring, 



53 



snow falls on the mountains; and why, in fine, in the 
months of October and November, it falls so abundant- 
ly in cold regions, as Canada, Switzerland, the north of 
Germany, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, &c; in a 
word, in all countries near the poles. If any incredulous 
person should ask why the phenomena of hail and 
snow never occur under the equator or within the tro" 
pics, except on the Andes, I would ansvver that that very 
circumstance proves the justness of my argument. 

However, it is remarkable, that when the cold is 
very intense, the magnetic fluid has too much power to 
allow the atmospheric vapours to rise from the earth, 
by their condensation below, so that the sky is then 
clear; the same takes place in summer by an opposite 
cause; that is to say, by their rarefaction; fogs and 
abundant rains are the result of a kind of a negative 
action of those two agents; from this it is easy to ex- 
plain why the cord of an hydrometer is tense or re- 
laxed, and why the spirit of wine or mercury rises or 
falls in the barometer.* 

Having explained by what means the atmospheric 
vapours are congealed, it will not be difficult to show 

* This doctrine is perfectly consistent with the observations of many 
celebrated men, and among- others with that of M. D'Arcet, who says, 
that " on the Pie de Midi, one of the Pyrennees, salt of tartar remained dry 
for an hour and a half, though it immediately moistened at the bottom oi 
the mountain." 



54 

why the electric fluid, and, I may add here, the gal- 
vanic fluid, which is a modification of the same, in- 
stantly consume and reduce metals; it is by a force op- 
posed to that which congeals them. The magnetic 
fluid is the most rectified part of cold, as the electric is 
the most rectified part of caloric* 

I have already observed that these two fluids are pre- 

* The effects of electricity on the aDimal economy are truly terrible, 
since it is instantly destructive of life; yet it does not burn or consume the 
body for this reason: there is in our system another fluid, which not coun- 
terbalancing- completely the power of the former, allows the vital principle 
to be subdued thereby, but still often preserves the body, insomuch that 
the restoration of life is not beyond hope. I compare the body under 
these circumstances, to a cord which has suffered violent extension, and 
the former elasticity of which may, by wetting 1 it, be restored. In such 
cases, I would therefore advise cloths wrung- out in cold water to be ap- 
plied to the head and extremities, employing at the same time frictions, 
with the same from the circumference to the centre, and proportionally 
augmenting the degree of cold, by adding- ice to the water in which the 
cloths are dipped. After the equilibrium is somewhat restored, the com- 
plete recovery of the patient may be attempted, by slig-ht electric or gal- 
vanic shocks. I never tried this experiment, but as the effects of light- 
ning may be imitated upon an animal, the trial may be made to restore 
suspended animation by the above means. 

In a contrary case, that is where the magnetic fluid has conquered its 
antagonist, the latter must be aided in order to restore the balance be- 
tween them; after recalling heat from the circumference to the centre, 
electricity and galvanism should be employed. 

Suspended animation from the above cause, and that from drowning, 
are very analogous; whence the treatment for the former may be also ap- 
plied to the latter, without neglecting the means usually employed in such 



oo 



sent in every place, and in constant and perpetual ac- 
tion; that the cause of the magnetic fluid existed prin- 
cipally about the poles, and that the needle consequent- 
ly obeys their attraction. To these facts, 1 think we 
may add one more, which may in time resolve many 
great problems or difficulties. What I have to remark 
is, that each of these fluids flows in a current or stream, 
which divides the globe into four equal parts, the mag- 
netic from north to south, the electric from east to 
west.* This will perhaps sufficiently explain why their 
shock causes peals of thunder, as well as the quivering 
of the clouds by flashes of lightning. This continual 
current of the magnetic fluid from north to south, in 
my opinion, obliges the needle to remain in that posi- 
tion; so that having here a good explanation of the phe- 
nomenon, there will be no necessity for supposing the 
whole earth a magnet.f ^ 

cases; however, I think galvanism and electricity should precede the use 
of irritating clysters, and those of tobacco smoke. 

* From the properties already known of the tourmaline stone, which is 
to electricity, what the loadstone is to magnetism, an instrument may be 
made, which will prove my doctrine, and be very useful to correct the va- 
riations of the compass. 

f I shall no doubt be reproached with the desire of explaining every 
thing; but I would rather sin so, than by sterility, from which nothing can 
be derived. To this crossing of the two fluids, then, I attribute the occur- 
rence of equinoctial storms and hurricanes. As to the phenomenon of 
water-spouts, I would explain it thus; a column of electric fluid rises from 



56 

When I perceive and pause upon these laws, which 
govern the universe, I acknowledge with deep-felt ad- 
miration, the power and wisdom of the beneficent Crea- 
tor. I behold the celestial bodies linked to our plane- 
tary system, majestically rolling from east to west, 
round a common centre, which itself obeys the univer- 
sal law of gravitation. This law is to the sun, the 
glorious orb of day, what that of death is to the mighty 
potentates of earth. 

The immortal Galileo, who ought during his life to 
have been much more honoured than even Newton and 
Franklin have been, received perpetual imprisonment 
as the reward of his genius. As for me, an obscure 
man, who dare to follow in the steps of these philoso- 
phers, I fear not, (thanks to the age in which we live,) 

the earth or water into the atmosphere, as high as the electric region only; 
this column is surrounded or flanked by a sufficient mass of the magnetic 
fluid, that the first may, by its rarefaction, establish a vacuum; at the same 
time, a column of water equal in diameter to the syphon, rises into the air, 
and as it ascends, is converted into vapour and forms clouds; it finally di- 
minishes, in proportion as the magnetic fluid becomes sufficiently powerful 
to re-establish the equilibrium. Whirlwinds are, no doubt, attributable 
to the same cause. 

In Martinique, as I was one day walking by the sea shore, I perceived, 
at the distance of about a mile and a half, a water-spout, the diameter of 
which, at the lower part, appeared to be at least sixty feet. I observed, 
at the same time, the water rising and changing into vapour, and heard 
the noise which it made in rushing towards the centre of the column; 
though then certainly I was far from being able, in any way, to account 
for the phenomenon. 



51 

the fate of the former, nor does my ambition aspire to 
the renown of the latter. 1 declare that to them I owe 
every thing; I do but draw mj inferences from the 
great principles which they have established* 

Analysis of the above system, — The division of our 
planet into three kingdoms only, is evidently defective, 
and this is the proof. Is it not true that in arithmetic 
as well as in mathematics, the divisor must be contain- 
ed in the dividend, and that the quotient must repro- 
duce the dividend, when multiplied by the divisor? 
Now, the division of the earth into three kingdoms 
only, does not distinguish one part three times larger 
than all the others together, inasmuch as to this day, 
the sea, water in general, the air and ether have not 
been included in the kingdoms of nature. It is not the 
less true that they form an integrant part of the same; 
and doubtless to this defective division, is to be attri- 
buted the obscurity in which the system of the world 
has been so long involved. Let a fourth kingdom then 
be admitted, under the denomination of meteorical, be- 
cause from it meteors generally proceed, and in it ex- 

* Though I have only mentioned the illustrious names of Galileo, New- 
ton, and Franklin, it is not to them alone I offer my admiration and grati- 
tude. On the contrary, I extend them to all those whose vigils hare been 
the means of rescuing mankind from ignorance, of raising them high 
above all other created beings, and teaching them to know themselves and 
adore their Creator. 

8 



58 

hibit their most extraordinary phenomena. Let these 
four agents also be admitted, caloric and cold, electri- 
city and magnetism; of which the cause is now known. 
Let it be admitted that each of these, by an opposing 
force, contributes to the preservation and animation of 
nature; and this grand, immense, and wonderful ma- 
chine will be more open to our comprehension, to our 
judgment, and to our understanding, than this little and 
mortal frame in which I feel the throbbings of the 

heart. 

I am too well aware of the power of habit, of educa- 
tion, and the prejudices to which these give birth, not 
to perceive that reason itself must slowly come to light. 
Though I have proved the cause offrigoric, many will 
perhaps admit a causeless effect, rather than accept the 
proof which I have demonstrated. 

However, to hasten conviction, may 1 be permitted 
to transfer to earth, those laws which govern the hea- 
vens—those sublime laws which were ascertained by 
the immortal Newton! Let any one answer me, whe- 
ther they act not, operate not, by opposing forces, in 
which God has shown to mankind the mightiness of 
his power, and the infinity of his wisdom. 

Born in an age of revolutions, may I have, at least 
the happiness of contributing to one which shall be 
useful to mankind. 

THE END. 






TOE YELLOW FEYER, 

WITH OUNT OF A NEW MODE OF TREATMENT AND h 

FOR THE SAME, AS WELL AS FOR PUTRID AND 

LIGSAM 'DIM IN GENERAL, APPLICABLE ALSO 

CASES 01 N1NG BY MINERAL OR VEGETABLE 

RALLEL BETWEEN THE YELLOW FE- 

I THE PI THEIR CAUSES; THE RATIONAL 

OF THE LATTER, WITH THE MEANS OF RE- 

OR PREVENTING THE RETURN OP BOTH. 



COLD, AS CONNECTED WITH ELECTRICITY 
EIR INFLUENCE ON THE SYSTEM OF THE 



^r=Jr=ii=ij=rr=Uf=it=it=ir=iEJFJBL^^I 

OBSERVATIONS J!jP| 

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i "'■'■•'. i potuit rerum cognoscere causa* 
BY ANTHONY PLANTOU. 

SURGEON AND DENTIST. 



SECOND EDITION. 

000 

PHILADELPHIA 

1822. 



